Making a difference. Define how your community group makes a difference in the lives of the people who use the group’s resources.

Influence in the community. Understand why your group is important in people’s lives. What positive influences and emotional impacts do you see resulting from how well your group engages in community-based activities?

Look at the overall situation in the community. What issues are affecting the community? How do those issues affect the group’s activities? What is the group’s unified response to these challenges? A strategic plan is an important reference point for everyone with an interest in the future success of the community group.

Decide your resources targets within the community. Ask the difficult questions, e.g. who is in most need of the group’s resources. Think through and discuss options for resource usage that have not been thought of before.

Design a roadmap for success. A strategic plan provides directions; reasons for going in that direction and significant landmarks by which to check progress to that direction. A roadmap is useful when it assists the group to reach a destination point: a certain result is achieved.

State positive outcomes. Identify the benefits for the community members then support and engage them in activities.

Develop a mission statement. A mission statement is a record of the principles that inspire, rally participation and unite people at all levels of the community group.
An effective mission statement describes the purpose, common values and central activities that are enhanced because of these clearly understood and passionately held priorities.

Establish a profile of goal responsibility. Seek agreement on who will be responsible for a particular goal. Develop a comfortable but challenging timeline of how this goal can be reached. After the goal has been reached, propose a system whereby the individual and the group can evaluate the process they followed in achieving the goal.